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March 24, 2006
From Hero to Heel
During the impeachment of Joseph Estrada, Raul Gonzalez was one of the heroes who stood tall and righteous against an immoral president. Now, however, Gonzalez as Secretary of the Department of Justice (DOJ) is fast turning into a heel. He's becoming as abhorrent as the President he ousted and the President he now serves.
When people testify in a court of law, they are required to take an oath to tell "the truth and nothing but the truth." So it follows that the top honcho of the Justice Department should be the very defender of truth. Yet, it seems Gonzalez would rather hide or twist the truth.
For instance he acts more like the defense lawyer of the American servicemen accused of raping a Filipina, a countryman of his. Certainly he shouldn't side with the victim, but his actions are telling Filipinos he's making it difficult to prosecute the accused. Perhaps a green card for him or his relatives is in the back of his mind, thereby befuddling his reasoning.
Then there is his veiled threat to go after "seditious" journalists. He particularly mentioned the PCIJ. Yet, when the PCIJ published its investigations of the various mansions Estrada owned, no one complained about it, much less labeled the reports seditious. However, when the PCIJ came out with its investigations on the Garci tapes, they're warned as bordering on sedition. Duh!
So now we get the notion that the government is the sole judge of what is seditious or not. This is highly dangerous! This means if a journalist, for example, reports that GMA wears 4-inch heels to look tall, this could be regarded as seditious. The journalist can then be arrested and hauled into court.
The objective is not to ferret out truth or expose sedition, but to intimidate and make it difficult for media to work freely so they would instead toe the line of government and whatever propaganda it dishes out through clones like Bunye and Defensor.
Control the press and you control civil liberties. Control civil liberties and you have a dictatorship.
And that's the truth, your honors!
Posted by francis at March 24, 2006 12:09 PM
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